Hey MF!Yeah the fall was definitely a scary one but I was lucky I was out of the way of traffic and not banged up so bad that I couldn't pull myself and my bike off to the side of the road and safety. I haven't had too many serious falls but this one shook me up. My knees are still pretty heavily bruised and I've got a few bruises on my face but nothing that actually hurts anymore. The grip strength is still a battle, but I think that it's one that I'm winning. I've been paying a lot of attention to my hand placement, and I've completely stopped using the EZ bar over the past two weeks. My grip feels stronger when I keep my hands in a little closer for DLs, and I think that using a standard barbell instead of an EZ bar for things like curls is forcing my wrists and forearms to actually pull their weight. I've been doing squeezes at home and during free time as well, which I can only assume is contributing. Right now it still feels like a slow road, but it's definitely getting better.

On grip strength - one thing that I feel helped me was doing conventional deadlifts with double overhand grip. I would do all except my heaviest two sets with double overhand (at this point its anything over 315#). Heavy farmer's walks and volume heavy single arm rows were also good.

Also, use chalk! Your grip will feel much more secure when your hands are truly dry. I use Eco Ball Chalk by Metolius ($6 on Amazon) which is non-marking and you don't need a whole lot of it like regular chalk. If your gym won't allow chalk the eco ball is a good way to sneak it in - just keep it in a plastic bag. It looks like chalk in the bag but you can barely see it on your hands and nothing on the bar.

Thanks for the tips! I haven't actually used chalk ever, but it's something I'll look into! I'm keeping conventional deads in the rotation once a week and usually I use overhand grip until my last two sets, as well. My grip has been feeling better every time, definitely improving.

Today I was running on way less sleep than usual and without any coffee, so I decided to just get in and move some weight around and get out. For the rest of the day I've been eating every single thing that comes into my path and I plan to fall asleep early and then get up early to go check out that meet tomorrow. If all goes well I'll be spending some serious time in the gym tomorrow afternoon.

The meet was awesome. Biked a total of 28.8 mi there and back, took enough time at home to slam a Monster and eat a Builder bar and then bussed up to the gym… and spent an hour and a half moving shit around. Confirmed 1RM for deadlift with standard bar at 205 lbs. I feel extra fantastic. The meet definitely showed me that I have a LOT to work on but that competing within the next year isn’t out of the question. Just gotta work work work… and eat more.

I took the rest of last week off. Wednesday was on purpose, Thursday I took off from lack of sleep/adequate nutrition and stress… figured it would be counterproductive to my goals, so I laid low and tried to catch up on eating. This weekend my partner and I went camping with my whole family and our dogs – it was a blast. Lots of time in the car getting there and back combined with poor eating of the weekend though. Time to get back on top of things.

My hammies haven’t seen this much action since I first figured out RDLs. Great lower body/back day today. Feelin totally solid. Maybe the trib/dhea off-cycle stuff is in my head. My deads didn’t suffer at all today. If anything, I felt stronger in my lockouts than ever. Added in weighted glute bridges, first time trying them, and I can already tell they’re going to be permanent in the rotation. Another confirmation of my 205 1RM deadlift today, too. Next week I’m throwing an extra 5 lbs on there at the end. My upperbody strength has increased to the point where I consistently feel my lats working on the pull-downs instead of feeling the load through my arms, which is excellent.

Monday...Friday I went in and got things done quick and simple. Thursday I played hooky and had a ridiculously lush day at home instead with my girlfriend. Now it’s monday and I’m back in the game! The biggest issue I’m running into with training right now is just making sure I eat enough, which I’m attempting to combat by stuffing my face with every vegan food item that comes within reach. It’s tough, but someone’s gotta do it

OHP10x55lbs10x50lbs10x50lbs10x45lbs

Barbell Curl10x50lbs10x50lbs10x50lbs10x45lbs

Wide-Grip Incline Press3x10x45lbs

Plate Front Raise3x10x25lbs

Tricep Pushdowns3x10x72lbs

Cable Curls3x10x48lbs

Cable Rows3x10x72lbs

Machine Chest Press10x55lbs10x55lbs10x60lbs

Then... On Tuesday...DEADLIFT DAY DEADLIFT DAY DEADLIFT DAYPicked up 215 lbs today, feelin like a champion. The lockout at 215 was a little weak but it was good at 210 so regardless I’ve got a solid new PR. The only 1RM I’m really comfortable testing by myself is deads, but I might go for a squat 1RM later this week. My bench is so atrocious I don’t even want to think about it right now. Today was an excellent day for some back work, though.

Focused on that bench yesterday, put up some solid numbers. I’ll be back in the gym for legs in a couple hours, but I had a few minutes so I thought I’d record yesterday’s chest day. I had to cut things short because I got an alert on my phone that I was 15 min away from a meeting (yikes!) when I still had a few sets left, but oh well. That’s life! Cable curls + tricep pushdowns with a straight bar are becoming one of my favorite upper body supersets, I find myself working them in a lot. I read an article this past week about how if you superset antagonistic muscles it actually helps them recover a little better… Now, I don’t know if this is exactly true but I do know my arms have been getting bigger again over the past two weeks since I started implementing that superset and using some barbell curls. Success!

Went heavy on some squats today. I feel myself gaining more and more confidence with the bigger lifts and feeling more and more confident moving my weights up and trying for some heavy triples and doubles. Still seeing great improvements.Now that I’ve been testing my 1RM or calculating out from my heavier low rep sets, I thought it might be interesting to compare stats from June:

I’m completely pleased with my progress. The bench is a little disappointing but I was expecting it. Although I feel a lot stronger with bench these days and I know my form is 100% better than it was 5 months ago, the actual weight hasn’t gone up. It’s okay though, I’m going to start blasting bench from now on, as well as starting a daily pushup challenge. Also, winter is hitting me hard and my appetite has been out of control – which is fantastic. I’d love to put on another 5-10lbs before spring, even if some of it is cushion and not muscle.Mostly I’m just super stoked about my deads and how much I killed squats today. Mostly I just love the gym and wish I could stay there forever and lift longer without having to compromise on my gains. Alas, 50 min in and out and then I’ve gotta rest up for next time.

Hi BodyByVi! I'm so glad you've found my posts helpful. I still feel like I'm learning so much and the information I've gleaned from these forums is invaluable.

I have no idea how I blasted through my session so quickly today, but somehow I was in and out in ~35 min and feelin pumped. I’m going to stop neglecting my upper body lifts as much as I have been in the past. True, they’re not as fun and don’t make me feel like as much of a raging superbeast, but they’re worthwhile. Today was OHP day!

I switched up training for deads a little yesterday and did a bunch of heavyish-heavy singles and then threw a little volume on the end. For the last (volume) set I completely dropped the bar and re-set between each lift, but then pulled the bar right back up again without taking more than a second or so of pause. I got the idea from an article I read this past week, and I think that I liked it. I like the idea, and I felt it, and the burn was good, so maybe I’ll try it again next week.I also did a bunch of rest paused squats yesterday. I had planned to do box squats but there was no box to be found, so I just took some loooong pauses instead. The first set I spent ten full seconds under weight for each rep before coming up. The second and third I dropped it to five seconds under weight. I kept breathing through the pauses. It felt like torture and was fantastic.Scale showed 123 lbs this morning. Not pleased. I need to eat more.

In an attempt to get myself more excited about bench press… Today was bench press day! Yay!In complete seriousness though I think my chest press is getting a little bit better. I had an insane pec pump after today’s workout, and I don’t usually get that. I debated going to the gym today because last night I stayed out late drinking with coworkers and I wasn’t sure that I would feel up to it enough for it to be worth it… but I’m glad I went in. It was one of those days where I was telling myself that I just had to show up. I just had to put on my gym gear. I just had to go and get under the bar. And I managed to surprise myself with how hard I was able to go today, even with poor sleep and nutrition for the past day or so.I need to do more pushups.

Then I devoured an entire can of chickpeas for PWO nutrition. Now all I want to do is go home and cuddle up with my dogs and sleep. I need to rest up for tomorrow, when I’m gonna go hard as hell on some squats and try to put up some newer, shinier, bigger numbers.

Also, yesterday I registered for a dodgeball league as my birthday present to myself. I'm pretty stoked on it.

03Dec2013one thing that needs changing is my caloric intake before and after workouts. when i switched to my new creatine powder a couple months ago, i began noticing a pretty sore stomach consistently after workouts. i chalked it up to the new powder and stopped drinking it. now i’ve been lifting creatine free for a few weeks and the sore stomach is still there after lifting. it is worse on back/leg days, presumably because my body is under more stress on those days. the only thing i can guess is that when i hit my lactate threshold the sore stomach is my body’s response, and maybe i should be eating a very small portion of fruit or something similar pre-workout to counteract this. any thoughts or suggestions? i do not feel like i encountered this with my previous creatine. perhaps i should switch back to the previous creatine that i was using pre-workout, as i never noticed sore stomach with that and was always ready to eat immediately after getting back into my lab. the biggest downfall of the sore stomach now is that it kills my appetite, making it very difficult to get in my recovery calories. it’s an extra bummer when my appetite is already as low as it has been. i continue to struggle with total intake lately.in good news, my hands and grip are responding excellently to the switch from gloves to chalk. gettin callouses and i don’t miss the gloves. i love just feeling the bar in my hands now. a+.

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